The invention relates to an arrangement of apparatus for a motor vehicle which is especially intended to assist with driving and/or to make it more pleasant, as well as to a dashboard for a motor vehicle, featuring such an arrangement.
In the motor-vehicle field, at the present time, dashboards are known featuring, in the central part, on the front face, one or more housings for accommodating equipment elements such as a car radio, a cassette or compact-disc player, a navigation system or other systems.
These various pieces of equipment are installed optionally, either on the basis of the equipment fit given to the vehicle when it is manufactured or, during or after purchase, on the basis of the wishes of the user.
One of the first drawbacks of such optional equipment elements is that they present redundancies and that the said elements are all equipped with their own power supply, with their own control panel and/or their own display system.
This therefore multiplies the number of components necessary to operate them and increases their bulk, and consequently limits the number of optional equipment elements capable of being used.
Moreover, in order to rationalise their connections, connection boxes are nowadays used, which are pre-installed for a maximum number of optional equipment elements. These therefore exhibit a relatively cumbersome structure, although they are usually only partially used or are even wholly unused in certain instances of bottom-of-the-range vehicles.
The object of the present invention is to propose an arrangement of apparatus for a motor vehicle as well as a dashboard featuring such an arrangement which overcomes the abovementioned drawbacks.
One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an arrangement of apparatus making it possible to avoid the functional and/or hardware redundancies among the equipment elements which form part of it.
Another object of the present invention is to propose an arrangement of apparatus for a motor vehicle and a dashboard for a motor vehicle featuring such an arrangement the bulk and/or the structure of which are reduced.
Another object of the present invention is to propose an arrangement of apparatus for a motor vehicle and a dashboard for a motor vehicle featuring such an arrangement in which the energy supply and/or the data distribution/acquisition for the said equipment elements is optimised.
One advantage of the present invention is that of proposing a solution which makes it possible to arrange equipment elements the number and the nature of which can easily be upgraded, either during the construction of the vehicle or when the vehicle is made available to the user upon sale, or in the course of its life after sale.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will emerge in the course of the description which will follow, which is given only by way of indication and which is not for the purpose of limiting it.
The invention first of all relates to an arrangement of apparatus for a motor vehicle, which is intended to perform a variable number of functions, especially to assist with driving and/or to make it more pleasant, comprising at least a plurality of equipment elements based on electronic components and processing means, characterised in that the said processing means are intended to be remote and to be common for the set of the said equipment elements, and the said electronic components, intended to be functionally specific from one equipment element to the other, constitute additional processing means in order, in combination with the said common remote processing means, to allow the implementation of one or more given functions of the said arrangement, by each of the said equipment elements.
The invention moreover relates to an arrangement of electronic apparatus for a motor vehicle, which is intended to allow a variable number of functions to be carried out, especially to assist with driving and/or to make it more pleasant, comprising at least a plurality of equipment elements based on electronic components, characterised in that at least one of the said equipment elements, called first element, comprises connection means for the energy supply and/or the distribution/acquisition of data for the said components, comprising at least first plug-in means, intended to be linked, directly or otherwise, to one or more energy-supply and/or data distribution/acquisition circuits, and of second plug-in means, intended to make it possible to link another equipment element to the said circuit by way of the said first equipment element.
The invention also relates to a dashboard for a motor vehicle equipped with such an arrangement of apparatus.